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Pyrocatechine

Pyrocatechine

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:40 pm

by KennyE

Discovered in 1839 by H. Reinsch; Pyrocatechine saw little use in photography because it could not be made chemically pure, plus the cost of it was high.

But by 1898, all that was about to change. Dr Ludwig Ellon & Co. Chemical Works of Charlottenburg, Germany, had discovered how to make it chemically pure and cheap. With the assistance of Professors H. W. Vogel, Professor J.M. Eder, and Professor P. Banneke of the Royal Technical High School, also in Charlottenburg, Germany. They re-introduce the old formulas of Pyrocatechine.

They also got some help from Messrs Luimere, who replace the carbonate alkali, with T.S.P..

Luimere will go on to work with Para-phenylenediamine in 1904, which will be followed years later by Johnson and Sons in 1934. Johnson and Sons work and invention "Meritol, will lead DuPont on a search that will cover the years 1939 to 1946,to create a new developer. DuPont abandon their research, when they turned their attentions towards X-Ray color photography.

Photography Formulary sells a very good Pyrocatechine formula. "Windisch Pyrocatechin Film Developer"